Won a DUI trial today. It was a difficult case, with a .14/.15% blood alcohol level, almost double the legal limit, plus an accident, in Newport Beach, California. Here you can see the court minutes from the verdict:
Today was the verdict of Not Guilty in the DUI case, rendered at the Newport Beach courthouse. I enjoy my job as an Orange County DUI Attorney and take my job seriously.
Often, as in this case, I have a sympathetic client. Here I had a cancer surgeon, who had emigrated from Russia to Canada, and became a resident here in Orange County, California. He was involved in an accident when he was looking for where to turn and had an unfortunate solo car accident when he hit a light pole during a turn.
The law requires that each element of a case be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, which is where sometimes the prosecution’s evidence doesn’t meet the high requirements of that legal burden and standard.
The law makes a notation in the jury instruction that bad driving by itself cannot be used to prove the DUI. As the instruction notes:
“The manner in which a person drives is not enough by itself to establish whether the person is or is not under the influence of (an alcoholic beverage/ [or] a drug) [or under the combined influence of an alcoholic beverage and a drug]. However, it is a factor to be considered, in light of all the surrounding circumstances, in deciding whether the person was under the influence.”